


Beloved

by Archaeopteryx



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Established Relationship, Fade to Black, Fluff, M/M, Pillow Talk, Romantic Fluff, distilled essence of gay, just solid goop. absolute sappiness., they're in love you guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:08:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22486102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archaeopteryx/pseuds/Archaeopteryx
Summary: Dimitri ran his hand through Dedue's hair, admiring its shine in the moonlight. A full moon always kept him up, and tonight was no exception. " … I'm remembering when I realized I loved you."A late-night conversation.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Dedue Molinaro
Comments: 5
Kudos: 133





	Beloved

"You're thinking," Dedue said into the quiet dark.

Caught out, Dimitri huffed. "You can tell?"

"Yes."

"Mm." Dimitri ran his hand through Dedue's hair, admiring its shine in the moonlight. A full moon always kept him up, and tonight was no exception. " … I'm remembering when I realized I loved you."

" … is that so?"

Dimitri hummed, gathering his words. Nothing steadied him quite so well as his husband's weight against his side, on his chest — the heavy, heady warmth of another body, another pulse. "I was fourteen, I think," he said after a moment. "You were fifteen. The first spring after … after it happened. You saved a baby bird from the castle cats. Its nest was in a tree too thin for you to climb, and you begged me to put it back like the whole world turned on that tiny creature."

"I … don't remember that," Dedue said. Dimitri shrugged the shoulder not underneath Dedue's head.

"I don't remember much of that time, either, but that moment stayed with me. I was terrified I'd crush it, but you had such faith in me. I don't know if it even crossed your mind that I could hurt this tiny, naked creature." Dimitri's chuckle ruffled Dedue's hair. "All things be damned, I did get that little bird back in its nest. Then its mother swooped at me and I fell into a rosebush — but you hugged me, and that made every scrape and scratch worth it a dozen times over."

"That, I remember," Dedue said dryly. Dimitri chuckled.

"I'd say I know better now, but we both know that's a lie."

"You can be … foolish," Dedue agreed. He nuzzled against Dimitri's chest. "But you are my fool."

"Forever and always," Dimitri murmured against the crown of Dedue's head. " … I knew then that I'd do anything for you. I think it was the most I'd ever heard you speak, all to save a doughy pink thing barely the size of my thumb. That you could believe in anything, after that … I loved you for that. I never stopped."

"Oh," Dedue breathed, a warm puff against Dimitri's chest.

He said nothing for a while — that particular, tense silence that meant he wanted to admit something he shouldn't be ashamed of, but was, and the contradiction only further locked up his tongue. Dimitri waited, his hand drifting up and down the line of Dedue's back.

" … I don't know when I started to love you," Dedue said at last.

"That's alright," Dimitri said — too quickly. Dedue stilled, his back tightening. "I'm sorry. It is, though. You know I — dwell on things. I don't expect an answer."

Dedue sighed. He curled up against Dimitri's side, wrapped his arm more securely around Dimitri's waist. "I'm not … quick. In many things, but especially matters of the heart. Patience comes as easily to me as impulse comes to you."

"I'm not — !" Dimitri broke off with a giggle that cracked into a hoarse wheeze. "I can't finish that, even to joke."

Dedue kissed beneath his jaw, smiling against the soft skin. "You have an honest heart. It is a great strength."

Well, _alright_. Dimitri’s face heated in the dark. He still had no grace at accepting Dedue's simple, truthful compliments — there was nothing to deflect, no way to sidestep with some modest platitude. By the quake of Dedue's silent laugh, he knew exactly how he'd flustered his husband.

"I think," Dedue said slowly, when they had settled back into a comfortable silence, " … that battle you were sent to lead, when you were still a child."

"Fifteen is hardly a child," Dimitri objected.

He didn't need to see or even touch Dedue to feel his skepticism. 

" … but it's hardly grown, either," he conceded. "Sorry, love. Go on."

"If you won't interrupt me." Dedue huffed, an indignant arch in his voice. " … you wouldn't speak of what happened, but you came back wounded. Haunted."

Dimitri winced. It was not an easy memory to revisit. Dedue pressed another kiss to Dimitri's neck before settling back on his chest. 

"I resolved then to protect you," he said. "Not for my own sake, but because I could not bear to see your light dimmed, and no one but me seemed to see that you needed protecting."

Oh.

“I love you,” Dimitri choked around the stone in his throat. “I _love_ you,” he repeated against the crown of Dedue’s head, fine hair tickling his nose. If he didn’t say it, his heart might burst. It might anyway, full enough of warmth and light to crack him open and make a second sun of him, alight in the heavens with a love no fragile human frame could bear — 

But a sun had no arms in which to hold a husband, so he would stay small and mortal, and mumble oaths and prayers into Dedue’s hair until he shifted up to silence Dimitri with a kiss.

“I know,” Dedue murmured, when Dimitri’s frantic fit had quieted and they broke apart to breathe.

Dimitri sobbed. The shock of emotion left him reeling, dizzy with a vertigo that settled only when Dedue lay back on top of him. Heavy, close and comfortable, he could be nowhere else than here, nothing else but what he was, especially not when Dedue nestled his face into the curve of Dimitri's shoulder and interlaced their fingers. Space enough to settle, to let his pulse slow and his breathing steady, to become a thinking creature again.

"I love you," he said once more, just in case.

"I know." Dedue's breath tickled beneath Dimitri's chin, evening stubble scratchy against his neck. "I love you, too."

Dimitri sighed, and let his eyes sink closed. Not to sleep — it was his turn to feel Dedue thinking, the quiet turn of wheels in his head.

"If it's love we speak of, I realized while we were apart." They could hardly get any closer. Dedue made an effort anyway — hooked one of his calves beneath Dimitri's knee, tucked his arm around Dimitri's ribs, half-curled on top of him like some great cat. "Watching the doctor who saved me with her wife … their love only grew over the years I spent with them. I wanted that — a home, a family. I wanted it with you."

A simpler life … not without its difficulties, but without a continent on their shoulders. Without the eyes of nations on their every move. Dimitri swallowed. "I'm sorry."

" … for?"

"I wish I could give you that," Dimitri clarified, feeling suddenly that he'd said something foolish. Sure enough, Dedue propped himself up on his elbows, outlined in silver moonlight as he frowned down at Dimitri.

"Heart of mine," said Dedue, cupping Dimitri's cheek in one hard-worn hand, "my foolish Mitya, you already have."

While Dimitri reeled from that, Dedue kissed him.

So Dimitri kissed him back, of course — curled cold, broken fingers over the back of Dedue’s neck, knew too well the gouge across Dedue’s ribs when he arched his back and pressed their chests flush. He whined, startled, when Dedue pulled back with a firm but gentle tug on his hair, pinning him in place.

“I love you,” Dedue said, soft and serious. 

“I — I know.”

“I _chose_ you. I chose to build my life with you. I would never wish to be without you.”

 _Beautiful_ , Dimitri thought, speechless. No matter how familiar every fine, bold plane of his husband's face, he never grew any less breathtaking … but the corners of Dedue’s mouth pinched with unease, and anxiety gleamed in his eyes.

Dimitri began to understand.

“I know,” he said, brushing his hand through Dedue’s hair. “I know, dearest heart. I would never turn you away.”

Dedue softened, and let Dimitri tug him back down. “I love you,” he murmured against Dimitri’s lips.

“I know,” Dimitri whispered back. “I love you, too.”

In shadows and moonlight, in sighs and the shift of fabric and skin against skin, they loved and were loved, and there was no space left between them for doubt.


End file.
